TRDevelopment

Well I went ahead and replaced all my interior lights with LED's in my 88 4runner SR5 and now I have a problem with the lights not turning off when I shut the door. If I put the dome light on "door" when I go to shut the door it stays on. If I switch the dome light lever to "off" and shut the door the door lights stay on. I find it weird that when I have the door open and hold down the little door light switch on the vehile the door lights come on and as soon as I let go they turn off. Has anyone had this experience with there rig? I should note that before I put the LED's in the dome/door lights wouldn't work until I put the key in the ignition with the door open. I don't know if this would have anything to do with this.Any type of input would greatly be appreciated.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

It could be there was a problem before. But with a regular light bulb, you might not see any light emitted at say 50mA or 100mA of current flowing, but that is enough for the LED to turn on. Might want to check the light reminder relay or perhaps someone disabled the door/seat belt buzzer incorrectly and that is causing the problem.

All the dome light and door switches are connections to ground, so if you have any other ground connections to the dome light, it'll turn on, since it is supplied with constant power to one side.

LED dome light works fine in my '85:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/LEDs/1.html

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

Yep. Most LEDs are polarity specific too as in installed one way they don't work, other way they do.

:wabbit2:

technojunkie

Start looking for a short between the light socket and the door switch. The Door switches switch to ground so there is always +12v going to the socket. Does this happen with both doors? Have you tried disconnecting the door switches? Is it possible a PO might have replaced them with the wrong type? (Normally open vs. Normally closed, or vice versa)

TRDevelopment

Thanks for all the good info guys. Anyways, yes this happens with both the doors. No I haven't tried disconnecting the door switches. Im beginning to think the PO hacked something up when he installed the alarm. What am I looking for when I disconnect the door switches? I'm going to go ahead and switch the bulbs and see if the polarity on the bulb is different.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

My guess is 99% chance it is the alarm install. I would check for a ground connection at the dome light bulb on the side with the switch. If there is a ground there, find out where it is coming from as with doors shut, it should be floating.

TRDevelopment

When I bought the runner I went ahead and pulled the whole alarm out. However, the PO had a bunch of vampire clips going to the dash harness for the alarm. When I pulled the alarm out I just went ahead and just left the clips in tact because I didn't want to redo the factory harness. I was kind of hoping it wouldn't effect the way the vehicle functioned but I guess Im wrong. Im going to go ahead and take a closer look underneath there and let you guys know what I come up with.

TRDevelopment

Ok so I checked the polarity of the the bulbs by switching them around and still nothing changed. I am getting 6volts to the sockets when they are on? I checked the seatbelt harness to see if it was connected but havent checked the seatbelt buzzer can you guys tell me where it is located. Alldata's wiring diagram is kind of hard to read. It seems like something is reversed because when you close the door the doorlight stays on but when you open the door they go off. This also happens with the domelight.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

Find a copy of the Factory Service Manual as close to your year as possible and check in the Body Electrical (BE) section. Typically the seat belt reminder relay is in the center of the dash and the light reminder relay will be in the passenger side kick panel area.

6 volts at the bulb sounds strange. Should have 12 volts constant power and then a ground via the dome switch or via the door switches. Sounds like the alarm wiring is messing things up there. When you measure the 6 volts, where is that measured from (where are the meter probes)?

TRDevelopment

Im going to check with Mitchell and see if there diagram is a little easier to read. I took my dvom and checked the doom light socket and came up with 6 volts with the door closed.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

You might want to test the voltage and see what the voltage to ground is at each terminal of the socket then. So it the "power" terminal 6 volts or 12 and/or is the "ground" terminal 0 volts or 6. At least that would narrow down which side of the circuit is messed up. You should have 12 volts on the power terminal at all times and the "ground" terminal would be 0 volts with the door open and likely would read about 12 volts with the door closed.

ThatGuy1295

Going through the same thing myself right now, got some leds for the domes on my taco.
And in IMO its mostly to do with the convenience center on newer trucks. When testing with a voltmeter the socket terminals show .34V with no bulb installed, unless the key is on then it must bypass the convenience center or something, cause it shows 12V at the terminals. And yes the original light works with the key off. As soon as you stick the bulb back in it shows 12V with voltmeter, key on or off. So with the key off the convenience center needs resistance to show power at the terminals. Weird..right? Question 2 is there a simple way to bypass the convenience center and apply direct power to the lighting circuit for the dome and map lights? After all its just a timer anyways. Might be simple and just as easy as adding resistors to your lights, but was still cerious.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

It might be that with the key on there is a relay that kicks on to supply 12 volts to the dome light. But with the key off, it may be some sort of solid state power driver and that may need some load (resistance) to pull current through it to get the full voltage to display on the meter. Problem is the volt meter does not pull enough current to activate the circuit. You could put in a load resistor to simulate the incandescent bulb. That is commonly done with LED turn signal bulbs in order to make the flasher relay think there are regular bulbs in there so that it does not flash fast. The LEDs draw so little current that the flasher "thinks" there is a burned out turn signal bulb, so flasher fast to alert you to the problem. In fast there may be a "bulb out" sensing function in the dome light as well, not familiar with the newer model wiring, but have a look at a Factory Service Manual wiring diagram.

ThatGuy1295

Thats makes sense. so i got some more testin to do.

TRDevelopment

I Still haven't figured it out yet. I just started replacing relays that were connected to the circuit. I also tried replacing the dome light and nothing changed.

ThatGuy1295

I dont know. I tried a few resistor's and it works fine but the resistors get really hot. Lot of people say its fine to have a hot resistor, but that heat is wasted energy. So it uses as much power as a normal bulb, kind of defeats the purpose.

I tried:
a 100ohm 1/2 watt in parellel with the led. Really hot but not melting.
a 10ohm 1 watt in parellel with the led. Started smoking.

2 100ohm 1/2 watts in parellel with led as well as series and still hot, or didnt work at all.

Id throw a 10Watt in their if it would fit, there huge.

But the led light worked great other then the red hot resistor.

Ordered one of these today to try:
http://www.carid.com/2001-toyota-tac...FUlxQgods04Asg

Says no modifying required. We'll see uh.
I researched the donkey out of this, and still cant get a straight answer. I know why it doesnt work without a resistor, but what does it need. And what is the closest resistor to to simulate a 12v bulb without getting red hot? Cause thats all you should need. Led works great in parallel with a regular light bulb.

ThatGuy1295

Also thought about bypassing the relay integration unit for the dome lights. This would solve everything, since the leds work fine when connected directly to 12v.
But from the wiring diagram you can see that youll lose the factory alarm function anyway you do it, since it needs the door sensor connections to work properly. But if you dont have a factory alarm you could.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

Well, power is V*V/R so 12 volts and 100 ohms is 1.4 watts. You could try a higher resistance, 200 ohms would be half the power, etc. Less power = less heat, keep upping the resistance until you find where it stops working and go the next lowest resistor. You could take your 2 100s and put them in series (so 200 ohms) and have that in parallel with the LED.

ThatGuy1295

Did that ( 2 100ohms in series) and it didnt light up at all. So your saying try stepping down from 200 until it works with no heat?

ThatGuy1295

And as far as I can tell this is the way to hook this up. It wouldnt work at all having a resistor in series with the led. I know the led's themselves are individually wired in series.



Not tryin to take over the thread, but I think its relevant to the OP's problem. BTW appreciate the help from 4Crawler

And one more thing, I have know idea what power the leds im trying to use are. Makes it hard to calculate even If I knew how.